Public Safety: Postal carrier arrested, suspected of stealing mail

SANTEE: A U.S. Postal Service carrier has been arrested on suspicion of stealing people's mail for the past four years.

A joint investigation by postal inspectors and sheriff's investigators led to the arrest of Allen Joseph Pitman, 54, who worked out of the Santee post office, the Sheriff's Department announced yesterday.

When authorities arrested him Wednesday, they found stolen mail, gift cards, debit cards and money, said sheriff's Sgt. Tom Poulin.

They had watched him complete his route and then arrested him when he was getting into his personal vehicle, Poulin said.

“We collected 30 stolen gift cards on his person when we arrested him,” Poulin said. “He also had seven W-2s and six pieces of mail from Social Security. The detectives found more stolen property at his house.”

Investigators were led to Pitman in January when a Santee resident told authorities the gift card she had mailed to her mother had been stolen, Poulin said.

“We tracked that gift card down to the store where it was used – and there's video of the suspect using it,” Poulin said.

Investigators believe Pitman was stealing mail on his route as far back as 2005, Poulin said.

Authorities are asking people in the Santee area who believe they are missing a gift card and still have the receipt from the original purchase to call the Sheriff's Department at (619) 956-4053. –G.G.

Men with shotgun rob everyone in restaurant

SAN DIEGO: Four men stormed a McDonald's in the Lake Murray neighborhood Sunday night and ordered everyone to the floor at gunpoint before robbing customers and employees and taking money from the registers, San Diego police said.

The robbers, including one carrying a shotgun, went into the restaurant on Lake Murray Boulevard near Navajo Road just before 10 p.m., police said. One of them went person to person and took wallets and cell phones that another man put into a bag. Meanwhile, the others went behind the counter and took cash from the drawers.

They left through a back door and drove away in a light-colored General Motors SUV. They were described as black, wearing black hooded sweat shirts, gloves and bandannas over their faces. –D.B.

ID-theft and burglary ring cracked, deputies say

EAST COUNTY: A car burglary led investigators to a meticulously organized identity-theft and burglary ring with at least 100 victims, sheriff's deputies said yesterday.

Deputies seized hundreds of stolen items and arrested three men and one woman, all from Lakeside.

The investigation began Jan. 30 after a woman's purse was stolen from a car near a Chinese restaurant in Santee.

Investigators traced one of the stolen credit cards to a 29-year-old woman and went to her home Thursday to arrest her. She wasn't home, but her boyfriend, 27, was there. A records check revealed he was a parolee at large, and deputies took him into custody, sheriff's Sgt. Tom Poulin said.

The woman arrived in a stolen car and was arrested, he said.

Inside her home, detectives found a filing system of identity theft, Poulin said. “She would set up files on individuals for whatever info was stolen from them, manila-envelope files,” Poulin said, adding that she used that information to make purchases.

On Saturday, deputies arrested two more men, 22 and 27, at the Barona Casino hotel. Investigators found more stolen property in their room, Poulin said.

Police looking for women who used stolen checks

LA MESA: Police are asking for the public's help in locating two women who passed checks stolen from a vehicle at Grossmont Center on Jan. 22.

Later that day, a woman used one of the checks at a Wal-Mart in Santee, and the transaction was recorded on surveillance tape. A second woman, accompanied by the first, was then caught on tape using one of the checks at a Ross store, La Mesa police said.

One of the women was described as white, about 20 to 30 years old, heavyset with long brown hair. The other was said to be Latina, also 20 to 30 years old, about 5 feet 4 inches tall and 140 pounds.

Anyone with information is asked to call La Mesa police at (619) 667-1400 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. –D.B.

Carjacker takes man's BMW at gunpoint

SAN DIEGO: A man's BMW was carjacked at gunpoint in Rolando yesterday morning.

The carjacker approached the man just before 10 a.m. on 70th Street near Amherst Street, San Diego police said.

The carjacker was last seen driving east on Amherst toward La Mesa. The car is a four-door, dark-gray 2002 BMW 740i with tinted windows and California license plate 5YOC167, police said.

The carjacker was described as a light-skinned Latino or possibly a white man about 35 to 40 years old. –D.B.

Woman killed when car hits pole and burns

NORTH COUNTY: A woman was killed late Sunday when the Cadillac pickup she was driving crashed into a pole and burst into flames on Pala Temecula Road, about half a mile south of the Riverside County line.

The crash happened just before midnight, the California Highway Patrol said.

After firefighters extinguished the fire, they found the woman's body inside.

The woman was 24 and from Pala, the Medical Examiner's Office said. Her name has not been released. –D.B.

Man gets seven years for role in Ponzi scheme

SAN DIEGO COURTS: A Fallbrook man accused in connection with a $20 million Ponzi scheme that targeted elderly investors has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Edward Bevilacqua, 51, pleaded guilty in San Diego Superior Court last week to charges of fraud and deceit in connection with the sale of securities. He and another man, Charles Castro of Brea, had been indicted on 48 counts of securities fraud in September 2006. Castro, 50, pleaded guilty in February 2008 and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Prosecutors said Bevilacqua and Castro sold public-access Internet kiosks to consumers around the country as a business opportunity. Castro was responsible for promotion and sales; Bevilacqua was to find locations for the kiosks and serve as manager.

People who took part in the scheme received monthly payments not from revenue generated by the kiosk use but from money paid by others who bought kiosks.

More than 450 consumers bought thousands of kiosks at $4,000 to $7,000 per unit, but only a fraction of them were installed. –D.L.